The present invention relates to fabric-based electronic devices and, more particularly, to techniques for forming electrical cross-connections between orthogonal electrical conductors in woven signal-routing substrates for wearable electronic devices and the like.
There is much interest in integrating electronics and fabrics to produce wearable consumer electronics products. U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,482 describes a woven or knitted fabric having flexible information infrastructure integrated within the fabric. In some embodiments, the information infrastructure includes insulated, electrical conducting fibers that are woven into the fabric along with conventional non-conducting cotton or synthetic fibers. Electrical cross-connections are formed between two orthogonal electrical conducting fibers by removing the outer insulating material at their intersection and applying conductive paste to maintain physical and electrical contact between the two fibers. Such techniques for forming electrical cross-connections are expensive to fabricate and susceptible to breaking and other failures, especially for flexible fabrics.